Burgoyne Diller was an American abstract painter. His works are characterized by orthogonal geometric forms.
Background
Burgoyne Diller was born on January 13, 1906, in The Bronx, New York, United States. He was the son of Andrew Diller, a violinist and conductor, and Mary Burgoyne. Diller had a difficult childhood. His father died when he was only three, and in 1919, after his mother remarried, the family moved to Battle Creek Michigan.
Education
A childhood illness caused Diller to miss a year of Battle Creek High School, and during that time, he began to draw. Diller exhibited a natural talent for art, and after graduating from Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) in 1927, Diller moved back to New York City in 1928. From 1928 to 1933, Diller supported himself while studying at the Art Students League with Jan Matulka, George Grosz, and Hans Hofmann.
Career
In the early 1930s, Diller began a long career with the various incarnations of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which became a vital way for him to support himself as an artist. In 1934, he served as Supervisor for Mural Painting for the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA). When TERA was terminated the following year, Diller remained a Supervisor for mural painting, but under the newly formed Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (later, Work Projects Administration). He held this position until 1940.
During his tenure at the WPA, Diller championed abstract art and oversaw the execution of more than 200 public murals, most of which were completed as part of his largest undertaking: in the late 1930s, he supervised the artwork for the Williamsburg Housing Project in Brooklyn (1937-1939). Among the principal artists Diller selected for this project were Jan Matulka, Stuart Davis, and Paul Kelpe, who were all permitted to execute their own designs.
With the entry of the United States into World War II, areas of the WPA were transferred to the War Service Division, and from 1941 until 1943, Diller directed the New York City War Service Art Project. When the Project was terminated in 1943, Diller joined the Navy, serving on active duty until the end of the war in 1945. During these two years, he stopped creating art.
After the war, Diller re-immersed himself in art, resuming his activity in painting, drawing, and sculpture. In 1946, he began a long teaching career at Brooklyn College. Later, at the same time, he had his first solo exhibition in over a decade, when Rose Fried mounted a show of his work at her New York City gallery, the Pinacotheca.
Views
Quotations:
"I’ve always had the feeling that art really develops through a kind of general activity. You can have your isolated geniuses, but it's always been somehow or other a product of a kind of ferment."
Membership
Burgoyne Diller was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists.